


If There's A Reason (I'm by his side)

by PotterheadAvengerDemigod



Series: my heart on your skin [1]
Category: DC Animated Universe, DCU (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: A little, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Cute, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Haly's Circus, M/M, Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Fluff, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, mentions of - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-24
Packaged: 2018-12-05 19:57:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11585112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PotterheadAvengerDemigod/pseuds/PotterheadAvengerDemigod
Summary: Dick thinks that if finding your soulmate makes you as happy as Tati and Mami always are then being with your soulmate must be the best thing on Earth.A.K.A. A soulmate AU where your soulmate's life goal/motto/what they want most is written on your skin and changes as your soulmate's priorities change.EDIT (20/11/17) Edited in Romani translations provided by Ghostly_Prince





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm actually surprised that I can't seem to find many (if any) soulmate AUs for Birdflash, so I decided to rectify that!

Dick had always known that his soulmate would speak English. English wasn’t Dick’s first language, wasn’t the first language of most of the people in the circus except Pop Haly and a couple others, but the English words emblazoned across his hipbone prove that yes, his soulmate will speak English, and yes, the odds are high that Dick will learn the language too.

What his soulmate values the most stays the same for many years, those seven English letters taunting him until he finally learns to read them, and he’s both confused and amused, because “science” is a worthy goal, yes, but to be the one thing you want more than anything else?

He thinks at least his soulmate will be smart, and he likes that, because maybe his soulmate will learn Romani for him, like Dya did for Dat.

Dick is four when his parents start talking in English around him, helping him learn the language more easily. They tell the others in the circus to speak in English around him too, and it works well enough that Dick’s speaking the language with tentative fluency by the time he’s five.

When Dick is six Madame Fortuna -or Aunt Marone, as Dick calls her- tells him his soulbond is stronger than most, and Dick spends the rest of the day feeling like he’s walking on air. He’s not old enough to truly grasp the concept of a soulmate, but he knows from hearing the adults talk about it that the stronger the bond the luckier a person is.

Dick’s happy that he’s lucky.

Dya and Dat have words too, Dya’s across her collarbone and Dat’s around his bicep. Dya’s say _n_ _afandlipe arī urczajibe_ which Dick has always understood, because that’s what Dat says before every show. Dat’s words simply say _love above all_ in English, because Dya isn’t Romani, Dick knows, even though she speaks the language as well as Dat does.

Dat and Dya are soulmates, Dick knows that well, and he thinks that if finding your soulmate makes you as happy as Dat and Dya always are then being with your soulmate must be the best thing on Earth.

Dick is seven when his words change to “Flash is the best”, and no one in the circus really understands what they mean, but Dick thinks, “That’s okay, whoever they are, they’re the best anyway.”

Dick is eight when his innocence is ripped away.

He screams when he sees his family fall, and he freezes when the red floods the ground, and he cries when they don’t get up again.

He follows the officers blindly when they lead him out of the big top, and he hears Pop Haly yelling about getting custody through what seems like a veil of smoke. Everything is dazed and blurry, and Dick idly wonders whether he’ll ever get to fly again.

The next morning he wakes up and he doesn’t remember going to sleep, but when he looks at his words they read _“make sure they’re okay”,_ and that’s the only time Dick smiles for the next few months.

The next few weeks pass in a blur, and when Dick finally has the state of mind to think about that night without immediately breaking down he abruptly remembers the man he’d seen arguing with Pop Haly the night before the big show, and the same man he’d seen pouring something onto the cables.

Even at eight he knows there’s something not right with that.

Even at eight he knows that that man, that shadowy, intimidating man, was responsible for his family’s death.

Rage floods his body, malnourished and bruised as it is after weeks in Gotham’s juvenile prison, and he somehow finds the strength to bury his fist in the dull gray walls of his “cell”.

 _I’ll find him,_ he thinks, his vision practically tinged with red. _And I’ll end him._

The next day his words read _“find a way to stop them from doing something they’ll regret”_ and that’s the first time Dick has ever felt anything negative towards his soulmate.

The anger never really dies down, even when Bruce takes him in, but it slowly becomes a background thought, somehow losing its importance to the other insane things that are happening in his life. It continues that way until the day he finds Bruce’s -no, _Batman’s_ \- Batcave, and sees the file that he’s been compiling on Tony Zucco.

The rage immediately flares back up again.

Dick’s awake this time when his words change again, and he sees them switch to _“help them hide the body”,_ and Dick feels the fury coursing through his veins dim a little.

How could he ever have felt anything but fondness for his intended?

Dick’s still eight when he tracks down Zucco and takes him on dressed in nothing but a bastardised version of his old circus outfit, still eight when he tries to kill the man that had taken everything away from him.

Dick is still eight when Batman stops him from doing something he would regret.

Zucco gets away that day, just like he always had.

Dick is nine when he completes his Robin training, and Dick is nine when he heads out into the field for the first time.

Dick is nine when he almost kills Zucco again, and Dick is nine when he lets himself be the bigger man and Zucco is handed over to the police, handcuffed and unconscious and beaten within an inch of his life, but still breathing.

Dick is nine when Bruce pulls him close to his chest and Dick is nine when he breaks down in tears, swallowed by the darkness, but the darkness would never harm him.

Dick is nine when his words change to _“make sure they’re doing okay”,_ and Dick is ten and his words are still the same.

Dick is eleven and mostly adjusted to this new life when his words change. Two words. _“Go fast”._

He wonders what they mean, and wonders if his soulmate is revisiting their age old crush on the Flash again.

He’d have to tell Barry one day, Dick thinks, grinning at the thought.

He’s in his room in the Manor when a rush of adrenaline -not his own- floods his veins, a burst of _excited-nervous-stubborn,_ and then there’s a flash of sharp, hot pain, arcing across his chest, sudden and violent enough that Dick jerks, startled, and seizes momentarily.

 _God, what happened to them?_ He thinks, stunned and worried, fear gripping his heart in a vise and Dick’s vision whites out, his ears filled with the sound of shattering glass and there’s a burning in his chest, heat and light and someone’s yelling, is it him?

Distantly he hears his room door open and Alfred’s and Bruce’s panicked voices echoing, but the only thing Dick can think is _“God, please let them be alright.”._

A few weeks later his words change to _“try all the pizza flavours in the world”,_ and Dick, with pure relief flooding his every fibre, laughs so hard that both Alfred and Bruce burst in to check on him.

Then Batman and the Flash team up and Robin meets Kid Flash, who’s had his powers for all of a month and still does things like run into walls and slip into speedster talk without noticing.

Robin meets Kid Flash, and he doesn’t like this impulsive, cocky metahuman for all of two seconds before the redheaded boy glomps onto him, rambling on about how cool being a superhero is and how much he idolised Flash and how Robin was the very first ~~sidekick~~ partner and how cool he was and Dick feels a fondness that he’s never felt for anyone save his soulmate welling up in him, and he smiles.

It’s the first friendship that Dick truly makes as Robin, and he thinks _yeah, this seems like it could work out._

* * *

Months later and Wally and Robin are best friends, closer than brothers and the bane of the entire Justice League’s existence. Their pranks are practically infamous, and the problem about them is that their combined manipulation of both Batman and Flash leaves them getting out of most of their mischief scot-free.

Dick meets Wally officially about six months into their friendship, when Dick decides _“screw Batman’s rules”_ , and Wally meets Dick Grayson face to face for the first time.

* * *

Dick is twelve when his words change to _“go around the world in less than eighty days”,_ and Dick can’t help the fond grin that crosses his face. His soulmate is such a _dork._

Dick loves it.

It's only a few days later that his words change to _“life is pointless”,_ and Dick, to put it simply, _freaks out._

For some reason Dick completely ignores the fact that both Bruce and Alfred are at home and he could easily have approached them for advice. Instead, he makes a beeline for the zeta tube in the Cave and takes it straight to Central, where he practically sprints the three blocks to Barry’s house where he knows Wally spends the weekends.

He makes it to the Allen household in record time and doesn’t even bother to ring the doorbell. He just grabs for the third flowerpot on the right of the door and pries the spare key from its bottom, jabbing it into the lock and flinging the door open. He’s met with Iris’s stunned eyes and a gust of wind as Barry rushes into the room in response to their unexpected visitor.

He relaxes as soon as he sees Dick, and Dick feels a flush of heat race up his cheeks as he realises how utterly rude he’d been -God, Alfred would have his head if he’d known what he’d done.

Dick winces and takes a moment to apologise before asking where Wally is and rushing to his room at a speed that would have impressed Iris had she not been married to a speedster.

When Dick barges into his room Wally doesn’t react other than to glance up and quirk an eyebrow, which says a lot about how used to Bat behaviour the speedster is.

“Walls,” the acrobat gasps, eyes wide and panicked, and Wally immediately stands and gathers the younger boy into hug.

“Breathe,” Wally says, rubbing a soothing hand down Dick’s back. “Come on, just calm down and tell the Wallman what’s wrong.”

Dick gasps out a short laugh at the name, but sobers quickly. He pulls up the hem of his shirt and exposes the three words on his hip, and Wally’s eyes widen.

“Dude,” he says, and Dick honestly can’t tell whether Wally’s just stunned that Dick’s showing him his words, or whether he’s stunned by what the words actually say.

“Walls,” Dick starts, and he pretends that his voice didn’t catch in his throat. “What do I do? I can’t lose them, I can’t lose someone I love again. Not again. Please. What do I do, Wally?”

Wally’s arms come around him again, and Dick stares blankly down at those three words, those three horrible, terrifying words, those three words that send more fear rocketing through him than he’s ever felt in his three years of superheroing, more fear than he’s felt even going up against Joker.

Dick pretends he doesn’t feel the tears running down his cheeks.

“Please,” he whispers, and his fingers are running softly over those words, and even through his tears he sees them change.

Dick immediately pulls aways from Wally’s hug and stares at the words.

 _“Life is pointless”_ had been replaced by _“make sure he’s okay”,_ and the only thing that tells Dick his soulmate isn’t referring to him, despite the similar wording to the words that Dick had carried around on his skin for the better part of his ninth and tenth years, is the gendered pronoun. Up to this day his words had always been a gender neutral pronoun whenever his mate was referring to him, and the _“he’s”_ made it obvious that his soulmate wasn’t talking about him.

“Wally,” Dick says, glancing up at the elder boy with wide eyes. “What?”

The redhead’s eyes are wide, and he shakes his head confusedly, eyes fixed on the four words. “I-”

Then Wally’s reaching down and pulling his shirt off over his head, and it’s not the first time Dick has seen Wally shirtless, but it’s the first time that Dick’s seeing Wally’s words uncovered, stark black lines standing out in sharp contrast to his pale skin, and the first thing Dick registers is that those words are _definitely not English._

Then Dick focuses, and- is that _Romani?_

 _“Ne wesztinipe nipo papal_ _,”_ Dick reads, voice barely above a whisper, and Wally’s hands tremble where they’re still clenched in his shirt.

“I can’t lose-”

“Someone I love again,” Wally finishes, and Wally’s bright green eyes are shining, and there’s really no doubt about it. Even if Wally’s words hadn’t been _exactly_ what Dick had said barely ten seconds ago, the fact that they’re in Romani already pretty much confirms the fact that yes, Dick has found his soulmate.

And his soulmate is his best friend, because who else could it be? Who else could understand him as well as Wally West, who else could Dick ever love as much as he loves Wally West, who would encourage Dick in everything he did and who would be in partner in pranking and who would help him hide the body? Who else could complete Dick Grayson as fully as Wally West did?

Dick looks up, and yes, alright, he admits he’s actually crying, but that’s okay, because when his gaze meets Wally’s, the older boy is tearing up too, and Dick can’t help it. He lunges forward and grabs Wally in a tight hug, and his face is buried in Wally’s chest, cheek pressed up against those words, those beautiful words in his first language, those beautiful words that showed the whole world that, yes, Wally West was Dick Grayson’s, and Dick Grayson was Wally West’s.

And Dick grins as he looks down at his words, the black lettering shifting and rearranging under his gaze.

“Found you,” he reads, and Dick throws his head back and _laughs._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [My Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/_dreamdweller/)  
>  Pop over and say hi!


	2. Epilogue

It takes Dick awhile to come back down from the high of finding his soulmate, but when he does he immediately remembers why he’d come to find Wally in the first place.

He pulls back suddenly and abruptly from the hug, eyes wide and startled as he processes that if Wally was his soulmate, and a couple of minutes ago his words read  _ “life is pointless”,  _ that means that Wally had thought life was pointless not a long while back.

He stares at Wally then, gaze hard and steely, but the speedster can see the hurt that those walls are trying to hide.

“‘Life is pointless’?” Dick asks, and his voice is cold and unflinching.

Wally winces.

“In my defense,” the speedster starts, sitting down on his bed and pulling his covers over and around his shoulders. “I did  _ not _ actively believe that.”

“Why?” Is all Dick says, his fingers tracing the letters across his hip as if to remind himself that Wally’s still with him.

Wally shrugs, grinning sheepishly.

“So, a couple days back I made it a goal to go around the world in-”

“Less than eighty days,” Dick finishes, and the reminder of the dorky, completely  _ Wally _ thing that appeared on his hip a couple days back brings a smile to his lips.

Wally huffs out a laugh and cards his fingers through Dick’s hair, rolling his eyes in exasperation. “Of all the things to appear.”

“Hey,” Dick says, cheering slightly at the flush of fond exasperation that makes itself known through their bond. “That’s not the weirdest thing my words have said.”

Wally narrows his eyes. “One day, we are going to sit down and you are going to tell me every single word that has appeared on your body.”

Dick casts his eyes skyward, but can’t resist leaning forward and pressing a soft peck to Wally’s cheek.

“Yes, dear,” he teases. “But back to your explanation.”

“Okay,” Wally concedes, grinning back, because even though he can still feel Dick’s worry badly disguised under a layer of anger, he’s still too happy that out of all the billions of people in the world he was lucky enough to get Dick Grayson.

“So I did go around the world in less than eighty days. I actually went around it three times in three different ways in less than three days. And then I got back and I literally slept for an entire day, and when I woke up I realised how  _ pointless _ everything felt. Life is a  _ lie,  _ Robs.  _ A lie.  _ I went around the world three times in less than three days, ‘around the world in eighty days’ is a _ lie.” _

“Um,” Dick says, and it says a lot about the older boy that Dick doesn’t doubt his explanation for even one second. “I… am actually not surprised.”

Wally grins, and then Dick breaks out in a smile even as he drops down onto Wally’s bed, grabbing his blankets and pulling them off the speedster, bundling them around himself instead.

“Hey!” Wally protests, but makes no move to snatch the fabric back. Instead, he flops backwards to lie beside Dick, their sides pressed up against each other, just the blankets and their clothes between them.

Dick is pretty much completely bundled in Wally’s covers, only his face and a tuft of black hair visible, and if Wally’s honest it’s the most adorable thing he’s ever seen.

But the speedster’s smart enough not to mention anything; if he does, Dick would definitely take offense and immediately stop being a blanket burrito, and he doesn’t want _that_.

Dick’s eyes are shining, big and bright and so  _ blue,  _ and Wally’s never seen anything as beautiful.

How could he have ever thought his soulmate would be anyone but this amazingly beautiful, smart, charismatic, understanding boy?

How could he have ever thought he would ever love anyone as much as he loved him?

Wally’s hand comes up to stroke across Dick’s cheek ever so softly, and he visibly sees the other boy’s expression soften and he leans into his touch, dark fringe flopping into his eyes and making Dick let out a little disgruntled sound as he tries to blow it out of his line of sight.

Wally laughs and sweeps the hair away gently, and he doesn’t even think as he leans in and brushes his lips across Dick’s forehead chastely, seeing the flush spread across the younger boy’s cheeks to the tips of his ears, just barely visible under the blanket.

Then Dick’s hand wriggles its way out from under the mess of fabric and curls around the back of Wally’s neck, and a hard tug brings Wally’s face down until his eyes are level with Dick’s, and then Dick’s crashing their lips together, hard and forceful and  _ ow, are those teeth? _

It’s obvious how inexperienced both boys are, and Wally knows this is Dick’s first kiss, and, honestly?

It’s Wally’s first too.

Then Dick gentles his approach and he’s pulling back slightly, their lips barely touching, just soft, slick contact, almost hesitant, but so, so tender that Wally feels his heart speeding up in his chest, going faster than should be possible, fast enough that it’s probably practically vibrating instead of beating.

Wally thinks that would be terrifying for anyone else, but right now he can’t even bring himself to care, because his soulmate is kissing him,  _ Dick _ is kissing him, and when he closes his eyes there are fireworks going off behind his eyelids and there’s a heady, giddy feeling building in his chest, emotion swelling behind his lungs and  _ pressing,  _ and everything is  _ perfect. _

He feels the bond, the little empty place just behind his heart that had always been there reach out towards Dick, feels the bond yearning for completion, and it takes a moment, but then everything snaps into place, two complementary puzzle pieces sliding into place, jagged edges smoothing out against one another and forming an even more beautiful picture than either of them could be alone, and Wally silently wonders how he could have lived so long without this feeling of completion, like he’s finally found his other half, and Wally’s never felt so utterly satisfied.

If this is what having a soulmate is like, Wally’s never  _ ever _ giving it up.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it!  
> (P.S. I used Google Translate Romanian for the Romani, which I know isn't the same language, but it's near impossible to find any free online Romani translators, so if anyone knows please feel free to drop me a comment! Thank you!)  
> EDIT (20/11/17): Many thanks to [Ghostly_Prince](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostly_Prince/pseuds/Ghostly_Prince)  
> for the Romani translations provided!
> 
> [My Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/_dreamdweller/)  
> Pop over and say hi!


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